The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-08-19

III ECfasSs " aSnlngl6n, lii. b. AelIy. Breeds,
H.; Marian Coon, Peotone; Miss Pearl Adams,
Peotone; B. f. Ayers and wife, Morton, ILL.,;
e, z. Putney, Peotqne; c. W. Webster Peo-
tone; William Ulrich. Peotone; G. FL. cotter-
m lie, La Harpe. Ill; L. E. ROTTERDAM, Peoria;
w. b. McDonough, Macomb, His NJ. F. Nc
Denna Halloek, Ill.s T. Lawrence, Colchester,
H.; G. r. Stillwell BippeTs, Ind; Robert
Reed, Astoria. III Edward Compton, brake
man, PEORIA w. R. Kirchof. brakeman Pc
oriai Elsie Ulrich, Peoria; Mrs w. A. Sindell,
Peoria; Mrs. James Cording, Risk, ILL.,. three
Turks from Assyria; Peter Moran; Joseph
Moran; Antonio Lahert.
PEORIA, H., Aug. I2.-The train con-
sisted of engines 81 and 13, a baggage car,
a special car, five coaches and six sleep
ers. Two and a half miles east of Chats
worth there is small cuivers or ditch
1t is about fourteen feet WIDE and thirteen
feet deep. The bridge over this cuIvert
was a wretched structure of wool, and
the hot weather of past wes rs had made
it dry as finder. Wednesday night the
supports caught fire and slowly burned
until the entire bridge rested on the
schalced remnants of the timbers. When
the train came laundering down there
was nothing to warn the head engineer
that the bridge was death trap, and the
had steamed slowly out OF Chatsworth at
1:40 O'Clock, but striking a gentle down
grade the throttle was pulled out, and the
train rushed along at rate of forty miles
an hour.
When the first engine struck the bridge
there was cracking of timb ers and the
structure dropped. The leading engine
was not thrown from the track and con-
fol dor Wi h
it. The next engine dropped into the
cfasm and then the train rushed onward
and was piled in a heap, with the excep-
ton of the sleepers, which escaped with
out a scratch.
The scene of horror and conf fusion that
followed was frigntful. There were about
700 people on the train and of those fully
one-half were in the coaches that now lay
in huge mass. Ten cars filed with
dead and dying people were damned into
a.space of two cars length.
David Sullivan was the engineer of the
leading engine. He is unhurt. His fire.
man, John Rogers, jumped from the en-
CINE and alse escaped. Edward McClin-
took, of Peoria, engineer of No 49, was
instantly killed, his head and breast being
smashed to pulp. His fireman. Axel
is uninjured. McClintoclz leaves a wife
and three children.
The six coaches were telescoped in the
most horrible manner, and the occupants
were simply crushed and man gled almost
out of all semblance to human beings,
Thlrty-nine bodies were taken out from
the end Of one of the cars. When
the crash came they were swept
off NV ha
bursting in on them and crushed to
death in the farther end of the Car. The
accident occurred at IL 40 o'clock When
McClintoclk's body was taken out it was
found that his watch had stopped at that
hour. AS soon as the survivors recovered
from the awful shock a train had ran back
to ChatsWorth for help. The news of the
awful disaster spread quickly, and in a
sho rt time hundreds of people from Forest
Chatsworth, Piper City, Tilman and the sur
rounding country were on the spot assist
ing in the work of rescue. The remnants Of
the bridge, which was.still burning, re-
ceived the first attention Water was
ioroa ght from farmers houses near by and
the flames extnguished. None of the
cars caught ire otherwise the horrors of
q holocaust would have been added to an
already frightful disaster Attention was
then turned to the shrieking inmates of
the wrecked cars.
Such was the awful momentum of the
train shat three of the coaches were not
only telescoped, but piled on top of each
other. The other cars had rolled off the
track after telescoping. Fourteen trucks
were piled on the east side of the culvert
In the midst of this awful mass of broken
cars hundreds of human beings were
intombed. One woman with her baby
in her arms was thrown half the
length of the car and killed. The
baby was not injured. Four colored
women sitting together were crushed to
a pulp. As fast as possible the work of
release was prosecuted, but about 2:2)
O'CLOCK it began to rain and the horror of
the night was complete. The black dark
ness, which was family illumined by Ian
terms and pierced by the awful yells and
groans of the dying, injured and impris
oned, was now Joined by the elements, and
the pouring rain, lightning, and the roar
Of thunder made a scene that would ,ap-
pail the ravest heart.
One of the most tragic incidents was
the suicide of Melvin Smith, Peoria
gentleman. His wife was killed before
his eyes. He saw himself suddenly fast
ened in the wreck, with both his legs
broken and not hesitating long he pulled
out revolver from his pocket ana shot
himself Besides Melvin Smith another
man committed suicide. His name could
not be learned.
An impression prevails here and at
ChatsWorth that the disaster was the
work of train wrackers. Most Of the per-
sons who have escaped complain of hay
ing been robbed during the great con
fusion that followed. At Andrew Madi-
sons stable at Chatsworth survivors of
the wreck said that they were stripped of
their watches and chains by men who
pretended to give them assistance Two
men were struggling hard to get ont
of the wreck when they were ap-
preached by two individuals and
robbed Of every thing they had. Robbing
was going on on grand scale, eye-wit-
nesses tell, and the fact that only few of
the dead and wounded were found with
money and jewelry confirms the reports
Some people think that parties who were
aware Of the fact that the train contained
only excursonists, who had their best
jeWelry and large amounts of money with
them, set fire to the bridge, causing the
wreck, and thus escaped with harvest.
OF the injured three died during the
day. Many of the injured were taken to
the nelghboring farm-houses, but most of
them were taken to Piper City and Forest
Two wrecking trains had been dispatched
to the scene of disaster and the work Of
rescue was prosecuted more rapidly. The
dead were placed on cars and taken to For
est and the injured were carefully re-
moved to the farm-houses and to Piper
City, two miles distant
The bridge where the accident occurred
is only some fifteen or twenty feet wide
There was no stone used in its construc-
ton. 1t is all wood-a mere trestle b. idge
about ten feet high. Some of the piles
and cross-timbers have been weakened BY
t1re and the rails softened from the same
cause. 1t is probable that when the
double header struck the bridge 1t yielded
to such an extent and the rails spread so
that the locomotives were derailed near
the east end of the bridge and ran into the
embankment, and careening, went into
the ditch
With daylight the frightful scene stood
out IN all its awfulness. OF the coaches
nothing remained tut the trucks and a
vast mass of splintered wood. Lying on
la ho1,& 1.,,- .